Comment by fragmede
4 months ago
Medication alone won't do it. Talk therapy, so that you have someone to talk about your anxieties with, and get at the underlying emotional issues driving that, are requisite. Stimulant medication alone won't stop you from reading Reddit for 6 hours instead of doing what you're avoiding doing. You'll just get a really intense Reddit session out of it. Don't draw the wrong conclusion here, which would be to not take it if you are so affected because it won't work. They do, but that it's something to be aware of. There's no quick fix, it's gonna take work.
I'm afraid I have to say that in my experience talking therapy is even less effective than drugs, which at least do something. But again, I'm not discouraging anyone from pursuing these pathways: do it if you can, and as soon as possible, partly because the problem's unlikely to get better over time. But don't get your hopes up, if you're primarily an anxious procrastinator.
(I should add that IME "body doubling"/"task shadowing" is somewhat effective, though not very consistently. It's also probably the hardest intervention to get, though maybe things like Focusmate https://www.focusmate.com/ might help with that nowadays.)
One of the things that I have found is very important for me: when you take your medication, make sure you’re doing something you want to be doing for a while. Like you say… if the medication starts working while I’m browsing Reddit, I’m probably going to keep doing that for a while.
Since Concerta is extended-release, this usually means that I have to start work early most days. If I take the medication too late in the day it’ll disturb my ability to get to sleep, and since the medication has mostly worn off by that time it’ll generally mean… browsing Reddit in bed until way later than I should be up.